At the LAVA Center in Greenfield, Humanities Coordinator Matthew Barlow said their focus will be on the climate crisis and how it affects “farmers, gardeners and consumers.”
“We’re looking at the impact on the food chain,” Barlow, who also serves as the president of Just Roots’ board of directors, said. “We sustained pretty substantial damage during the flash floods and you walk into the grocery store and prices have gone up drastically. It all came together.”
In recent weeks, Barlow said they’ve spoken to customers outside of Foster’s Supermarket to ask them if they’ve noticed any changes in their shopping habits — many said produce has gotten more expensive — and farmers have told them its harder to plan for the season when the weather varies so much from year to year.
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The production of the audio documentary pilot coincides with a crowd-sourced photo exhibit at the arts space, which features pictures of July’s storm damage and other climate change impacts taken by the community.
If they expand beyond the pilot, Barlow envisions digging deeper into local gardening habits, as many people “garden in part to counter the costs at the grocery stores.”
Chris Larabee for the Greenfield Recorder
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